Hurston Waldrep Reassigned to Minor League Camp

The Atlanta Braves sent one of their top pitching prospects to the minors after another impressive performance

The Atlanta Braves announced one more roster move late on Friday afternoon, reassigning top pitching prospect Hurston Waldrep to minor league camp. 

Atlanta announced the move on social media, just hours after Waldrep pitched in Friday's Grapefruit League matchup versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. The move leaves Atlanta's roster at 41 players currently in camp. 

Waldrep pitched 2.1 innings against Pittsburgh, allowing two hits and two walks but not any runs. He struck out three batters in the contest. 

The righty, drafted in last year's 1st round out of the University of Florida, finishes Grapefruit League play with 4.1 innings pitched, two hits, four walks, and five strikeouts. He did not allow a run. 

But the strikeout artist flourished in his 57 pitches, becoming the talk of the baseball world with his unique splitter, thrown with both healthy velocity and extraordinarily low spin. 

And so Waldrep seems destined to open the season in AAA Gwinnett, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's one of the first three or four pitchers selected to come up for spot starts in 2024. Not only has he shown that he has the "stuff" to compete at the major league level, but there shouldn't be significant workload concerns with Waldrep, owing to his usage last season. 

Waldrep led all 2023 draftees in both strikeouts and innings pitched, racking up 41 punchouts in his 29.1 innings. Between his college season, which stretched all the way into the College World Series finals against LSU, and his professional debut, which saw him go from Single-A Augusta to AAA Gwinnett, he pitched 131 innings of baseball with 197 strikeouts. 

It's a workload that should allow him to spend time continuing to acclimate to throwing once every five days (as opposed to the once-a-week throwing schedule of college baseball) and still be available later in the season to make MLB appearances if needed.